FED:Seven says AFL negotiations ongoing

Channel Seven's commercial director says the process for awarding the Australian Football League's (AFL) next broadcast contract still has some way to run, the NSW Supreme Court heard on Wednesday.

Bruce McWilliam
was giving evidence during the second day of Seven's legal bid to delay its former chief sales and digital officer
James Warburton
starting his new job as chief executive of Channel Ten.

The current AFL broadcast deal, involving Seven, Ten and Foxtel, is in its final year.

The league is believed to be seeking $1 billion in rights fees for the next five-year deal.

Asked by the barrister for Mr Warburton, John West QC, whether the result of negotiations between the AFL and broadcasters would be known very soon, Mr McWilliam said: "There's no end in sight in the current process in my mind."

Mr McWilliam said initial expectations were that the negotiations would be concluded around the time of last year's AFL grand final, but kept being pushed back.

Seven and Ten made a "preliminary presentation" to the AFL recently, Mr McWilliam told the court.

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"It just depends what the AFL requires and how they wish to conduct the process," Mr McWilliam said.

Ten announced Mr Warburton's appointment as chief executive on March 2, with a start date of July 14 this year.

But Seven contends that conditions in Mr Warburton's employment contract and participation in a management equity plan (MEP), mean Mr Warburton has to wait until October next year before starting work with any other media company.

Mr Warburton's legal team says it believes the proposed transaction that will have Seven's media assets transferred to
West Australian Newspaper
s Holdings (WAN), through a series of complex transactions, will cause the MEP to cease to exist.

With that would go some of the restraints included in the MEP on Mr Warburton working for a competing media company.

Mr McWilliam said the proposed deal, due to be voted on by WAN shareholders this month, would not dissolve the MEP.

"The scheme most definitely continues," Mr McWilliam said.

The case before Justice Michael Pembroke continues on Wednesday.

At 1.23pm AEST,
Ten
was down three cents at $1.335, while
Seven
was up five cents at $9.03.